AP Interview: UNRWA head calls for greater access for humanitarian aid to Yarmouk

Pierre Krahenbuhl, director of the UN agency that supports Palestinians, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, March 12, 2015. Krahenbuhl is calling for greater access for humanitarian aid to a besieged Palestinian camp in the Syrian capital where up to 18,000 people continue to live in desperate conditions. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) (The Associated Press)

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Pierre Krahenbuhl, director of the UN agency that supports Palestinians, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, March 12, 2015. Krahenbuhl is calling for greater access for humanitarian aid to a besieged Palestinian camp in the Syrian capital where up to 18,000 people continue to live in desperate conditions. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) (The Associated Press)

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Pierre Krahenbuhl, director of the UN agency that supports Palestinians, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, March 12, 2015. Krahenbuhl is calling for greater access for humanitarian aid to a besieged Palestinian camp in the Syrian capital where up to 18,000 people continue to live in desperate conditions. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) (The Associated Press)

BEIRUT – The director of the UN agency that supports Palestinians is calling for greater access for humanitarian aid to a besieged Palestinian camp in the Syrian capital where up to 18,000 people continue to live in desperate conditions.

The Yarmouk camp in Damascus has been under a government-imposed blockade for nearly two years. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, has been able to deliver intermittent aid shipments over that period, although not nearly enough to meet the needs of those trapped inside.